— James Montgomery, with additional reporting by Chris Harris Fifteen years ago sure feels like a lot more than 15 years ago. In 1991, the biggest-selling artists in the United States were Metallica, Natalie Cole and Color Me Badd. There was no Internet, no pocket-sized cell phones and no PlayStation. And the name "Nirvana" carried little to no cultural significance. Nirvana Through The Years: A Video History Wondering what all the fuss is about? Check out this archive of Nirvana videos from all stages of the band's career. But on September 24, 1991, that last fact would change with the release of Nevermind, the sophomore album from a trio of Seattle shredders called Nirvana. Early buzz on the disc was strong — advance copies had been circulating for months — but nothing surrounding the album suggested the import it would soon carry. And yet, buoyed by the four-chord blister of its first single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Nevermind quickly sold out of its initial pressing of 50,000 copies, and within months, sales had surpassed the million mark. (To date, it has sold nearly 9 million copies in the U.S. alone, according to SoundScan.) By the beginning of 1992, it had overtaken Michael Jackson's Dangerous as the #1 album on the Billboard albums chart, and Nirvana were well on their way to becoming the biggest band in the world. Clearly, something serious was going on. And in the years following Nevermind's release, countless journalists and biographers have spilled gallons of ink trying to figure out just what that something was. Some say it was just a matter of timing — that Nirvana was a perfect antidote for the faceless hair-metal acts that dominated the musical landscape, and had unwittingly tapped into a cultural undercurrent that had been waiting to happen. Others point to Kurt Cobain's undeniable underdog magnetism. Or maybe Nirvana were just an incredible rock band, one that filled fans and amateur musicians everywhere with the hope that maybe their little rough-around-the-edges garage band could be the next big thing. But could something like that ever happen again? In recognition of the 15th anniversary of Nevermind's release, MTV News asked a host of musicians, journalists and industry insiders that very question. But in posing the question, we also ended up with much more: a collection of memories, and some frank discussion about the state of the music business, which, 15 years later, is still reeling from what is contained in that little blue jewel case with the naked baby on the front. RYAN ROSS PANIC! AT THE DISCO "I remember seeing the video for 'Teen Spirit' on MTV. I was like 11, and honestly, I felt like I was a little too young to be watching it, because it kind of scared me. But now I see why it was so popular, because it just flew in the face of everything else that was happening at the time. And in that sense, I don't think it's impossible that we'll see another Nirvana in our lifetime. [Panic] were doing something different, and we've sort of sparked something in people. And I think a band like [Seattle quartet and Panic's labelmates] Forgive Durden could be the next really big thing. Their record has a lot of things that I wish our record has, and I would love for them to get huge." JADE PUGET AFI "I was blown away by the video for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' because it was so dark. At the time we had, like Boyz II Men and the end of hair metal, and it was so different. I was in high school at the time, and my band started covering 'Teen Spirit' almost immediately. In the early '90s everything was so stagnated, and that allowed a band like Nirvana to happen. Right now, there is a bit of diversity out there, and people need to be a bit more fed up with what's happening in order for Nirvana to happen again. And plus, people don't take chances anymore; they're just interested in selling records because everyone's worried about the [music industry's] sinking ship. So it would take a special kind of fearless band that's going to put that kind of record out." MICHAEL AZERRAD AUTHOR, "COME AS YOU ARE: THE STORY OF NIRVANA" "I was aware of them from the Sub Pop album [1989's Bleach], but when Nevermind came out, I was working at MTV News, and a producer there played the advance of it over and over. And I kept walking by and hearing it, and I got a little hint that something big was going to happen. People were really tired of [hair-metal] bands like Warrant and Winger, and the fluffy electro-pop acts, and people were ready for something that spoke to them in a less cynical, condescending way. And along comes this album that was the perfect storm of rock and roll. And I don't know if that could ever happen again. In fact, I would submit to you that the next Nirvana may not be a band: It may be a piece of software, or a Web site or a personality on YouTube, or something enabled by technology we haven't discovered yet. We're in a changing time, where music may not be the mode for youth culture phenomena. And because of the fragmentation of music fans, you're never going to get another Beatles or Nirvana, because not that many are into the same kind of music. Not that many people want to be in the same stadium together."